About: the world this week 16 July to 22 July 2023. The grains of Ukraine; Manipur situation; the new largest office building in the World; Wimbledon Tennis; and AIDS.

Everywhere

Russia and Ukraine

This week, Russia announced that it would no longer allow Ukraine to export its grain by sea. Last year, the United Nations brokered the Black Sea Grain Initiative so that Ukraine’s ships could safely bypass Russia’s blockade and get grain to the rest of the world. Now, Russia says it’s pulling out of the deal because of the crippling Western sanctions. This could destabilise global food prices and push 47 million people worldwide into famine or hunger. The European Union is scrambling to find alternative routes, by rail, through Eastern Europe.

Now, one day after the announcement, Russia attacked a Ukrainian grain Port. And launched a series of missile attacks on other cities.

There was a commotion over the United State’s decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine after Ukraine warned that it was running out of ammunition in its counter-offensive against Russia. The cluster bombs have arrived and said to be used ‘wisely’ by Ukraine. And the war continues.

Manipur

India’s State of Manipur is in the deadly grip of ethnic violence, and this week pictures of women of one community being paraded naked by another community shook and stirred the conscience of India. The incident happened on 4th May, but the videos were released only on 19th July – one reason mentioned is that the internet was shut-down in Manipur.

The situation in Manipur is not a one-dimensional one. Read World Inthavaarm 2027 https://kumargovindan.com/2023/07/08/world-inthavaaram-2023-27/on early history of the conflict. About the Meities, the Kuki’s, and the Naga communities, and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Adding more this week.

Women bear the brunt of violence during communal and ethnic riots and we rarely see the perpetrators brought to justice. And if at all arrested, they promptly get bail. In Manipur, violence against women has been a particularly resonant issue ever since the remarkable grass-roots movement for civil rights, Meira Paibi – Women Torch Bearers- in the 1970s. The Meria Paibi fought human rights violations by the paramilitary and armed forces against innocent people. It’s now run by five women leaders, known as ‘imas’ or mothers.

Going back in time, on 15 July 2004, it was that radical protest by 12 Manipuri women, who disrobed themselves and stood in protest at the historic Kangla Fort in Imphal-then the headquarters of the Assam Rifles-carrying banners with messages painted in red. ‘Indian Army Rape Us’, read one. ‘Indian Army Take Our Flesh’, said another. The women were protesting against the brutal killing of Manorama Thangjam, a 32 years old woman who had been picked up by the Assam Rifles under suspicious circumstances. Manorama’s bullet-riddled body was found near a paddy field, hours later. The case was a flashpoint in Manipur and forced the administration to address human rights violations by the Central Forces during the peak of the insurgency-when the various communities of the Hills and Valleys in Manipur were fighting each other.

Recall that a woman, Irom Chanu Sharmila’s 16 year long hunger strike for the repeal of AFSPA contributed towards changing the discourse on insurgency in the State.

The Assam Rifles is a central paramilitary force responsible for border security, counter-insurgency, and maintaining law and order in Northeast India. It primarily guards the Indo-Myanmar border. And is one of the Central Armed Police Forces administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The AFSPA was used sporadically in the hill districts of Manipur to tackle insurgency before being imposed across the whole state in 1980. Resentment against the security forces’ alleged excesses began as early as 1974, when a local woman committed suicide after she was allegedly raped by a Border Security Force officer, who faced no action for the suspected crime.

In March this year, in a significant move, the Central Government had withdrawn AFSPA from certain areas in Manipur, citing ‘significant improvement in the law and order situation’.

There is another angle to the Manipur situation, a destabilising factor: armed insurgents from Myanmar-many of whom have kinship ties with transnational ethnic communities straddling India and its immediate neighbours-slipping into the northeastern states through the porous border and adding to the complexity of Kuki-Meitei clashes and exacerbating the ongoing conflict in Manipur.

To escape the crackdown by neighbouring Myanmar’s military regime, ethnic Kuki-Chin (the Chin are an ethnic community native of the Chin state of Myanmar) people have entered India by thousands since the Myanmar coup in 2021. According to figures from UNHCR -the refugee agency of the United Nations- the ongoing civil war in Myanmar has displaced 1,827,000 people since February 2021, among which over 53000, mostly from the conflict-ridden Chin state and Sagaing region of Myanmar-the hotbed of armed resistance against the junta-have entered India’s northeastern states of Mizoram and Manipur till the month of May 2023.

In the last week of April this year, a random identification drive by the Manipur Government as part of the population commission’s work -which was was set up last year to track illegal immigration- identified about 2180 undocumented Myanmar nationals in the districts of Chandel, Churachandpu, andTengnoupal. These are Kuki-dominated districts along the Myanmar border.

During the recent All-Party meet in Manipur, India’s Home Minister said biometrics of people coming from across the border are being recorded and “for a permanent solution” to the instability in Manipur, “we have set up wired fencing across 10 kilometres (km) of the Manipur-Myanmar border on a trial basis, work tender has been invited for fencing on another 80 km, and a survey for fencing the rest of the Manipur-Myanmar border is being initiated.”

Now to the last angle – the drug angle- without which the complex web of issues behind the ethnic clashes in Manipur will remain incomplete; a reference that has repeatedly cropped up during high-level interactions between India and Myanmar.

Myanmar has become the ‘largest producer of illegal drugs within the infamous Golden Triangle—a tri-junction at the Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand borders that makes its way to India through the porous border.

Supply of drugs from the Golden Triangle remains a persisting problem. In recent times, however, poppy cultivation has proliferated in the hilly areas of Manipur and the Narcotics trade is playing a significant role in the Manipur violence. And drug cartels are utilising large chunks of the hilly districts for ‘quality poppy cultivation’.

While Kuki-Chin ingress has happened in Manipur over decades, what has happened over the past few years is an explosion in poppy cultivation in Manipur’s Kuki-dominated districts backed by drug cartels and insurgent groups with a cross-border network, resulting in huge loss of forest cover: a problem that aggravated since the Myanmar 2021 military coup when the influx of the persecuted Kuki-Chin community intensified. It is believed that a section of these illegal immigrants is being used by the drug and weapon cartels in Manipur.

As Manipur shifts its status from a transit route for drugs to a major producer, fuelled by armed refugees from Myanmar, observers say opium cultivation in Manipur seems to be more integrated within the regional drug economy and connected to other actors, notably from Myanmar.

The present Government of Manipur has tackled the drug menace to a great extent and about INR 1500 crore of drugs were busted in the past few years.

It is evident that a knotty vortex of issues has contributed to instability in Manipur besides the said majoritarianism of one community.

Yet, even though women have led the political discourse on rights, they continue to be prime targets for mobs in times of strife.

Surat

For 80 long years, The Pentagon of the United States of America was the world’s largest office building with about 6.6 million square feet of floor space. Now a new building in India just whacked-off that title: the Surat Diamond Bourse, built in India’s gem capital, Surat, Gujarat, India – about 240km north of Mumbai.

The Belgian city of Antwerp may be known as the world’s diamond trading hub, while most rough stones are mined in Russia or Africa. But it is in Surat, where around 90% of all the planet’s diamonds are cut.

Spanning over 35 acres of land, the sprawling 15-storey Surat Diamond Bourse complex with 7.1 million square feet of floor space accommodates 4,700 offices and 131 elevators. It has been constructed to house the diamond industry – to serve as a one stop shop for over 65,000 diamond professionals, including cutters, polishers and traders. It features a series of nine interconnected rectangular structures emanating from a central ‘spine’, resembling the layout of an airport terminal.

The state-of-the-art building has features designed to consume up to 50% less energy, qualifying it for a ‘platinum’ rating from the Indian Green Building Council. It incorporates a radiant cooling system that circulates chilled water beneath its floors, which will reduce indoor temperatures. Further, solar energy powers the common areas within the building.

The mammoth office space will save people’s time and resources: especially those who travel to Mumbai, with some people have to spend up to four hours, daily, to come from their homes to their offices and back home again.

The project took about four years to complete, including two years of COVID19 pandemic related delay. The building will be officially opened later this year by India’s Prime Minister, and host its first occupants in November.

The Surat Diamond Bourse is designed by Indian architecture firm Morphogenesis, based in New Delhi, following an international design competition. The project’s size was dictated by demand with all offices purchased by diamond companies prior to construction.

The design was also influenced by Morphogenesis’ research into how the Indian diamond trade operates. The series of nine 1.5-acre courtyards, complete with seating and water features, serve as casual meeting places for traders; the landscaped area becomes the ‘traditional bazaar’ where any informal transactions take place outside the office environment. Email orders are probably taken inside, but human-to-human transactions are almost all outside. The courtyards are described a public parks where it is assumed all these activities will take place.

The Moon

India’s Moon-mission spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 is enjoying the ‘space sights’ on its way to the Moon and is in superb health, since its launch last week. India’s ISRO Scientists have been manoeuvring it gradually to longer orbits around the Earth and a 4th such manoeuvre was also completed this week. The last will be on 25 July after which it will be nudged into the lunar transfer trajectory to the Moon. Likewise, it will dance around the Moon before deciding to land.

Wondered why is takes more than 40 days to cover the nearly 3,84,000 km distance between the Earth and Moon when the USA, Russia and China do it under a week’s time?

India does not, as yet, have a powerful enough launcher to take it directly to the lunar transfer trajectory, hence this less costly means of cleverly using the Earth’s gravity to slingshot out of the Earth’s pull and then get into the lunar orbit. And again squeezing every bit of the Moon’s low gravity to make a soft landing.

Tennis

This year’s Wimbledon Tennis Championship in London, which ended this Sunday, served us two brand new winners in the Women’s Singles, and the Men’s Singles.

Czechoslovakia’s ‘much-tattooed’ 24 years old Marketa Vondrousova beat Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur in straight-sets 6-4, 6-4 to clinch her maiden Wimbledon Women’s Singles Title. Vondrousova is also a silver medallist at the 2020/2021 Tokyo Olympics. And she is the first unseeded player to win the Wimbledon Women’s Singles.

She got the first of many tattoos on her arms at the age of sixteen. And some have special significance, such as her lucky number 13, the Olympic Rings, and the quote, ‘No rain, no flowers’ (success does not come easily) above her right elbow. After winning Wimbledon, she and her coach Jan Hernych plan to get a matching tattoo in celebration-they pledged to so do if she won. A tattoo parlour in Prague, Czechoslovakia is their next destination!

But, the best was in the Men’s Singles.

Spain’s 20 years old Carlos Alcaraz beat Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in the semi-finals and went on to stun and end Serbia’s Novak Djokovic’s reign with a classic and enthralling 1-6, 7-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 match. It was a four hours and forty-two minute battle on the Centre Court of the All England Club. Last year, Alcaraz became the youngest player to earn the year-end World No. 1 honour. And this is his first Wimbledon Title – keeping the World No.1 ranking.

Djokovic holds this year’s Australian Open and French Open Titles and was aiming to equal Roger Federer’s record of eight Wimbledon titles and match Margaret Court’s all time record of 24 Grand Slam victories.

Margaret Court is an Australian former World No 1 women’s tennis player and considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Her 24 major singles titles and overall 64 major titles (doubles and mixed-doubles) is the most by anyone in Tennis history. She dominated women’s tennis in the 1960s with a powerful serve and volley game, and retired in 1972.

About, the new Wimbledon Champion, the best comment from Djokovic himself, “People have been talking about his game consisting of certain elements from Roger, Rafa, and myself. I’d agree with that, He’s basically got the best of all three worlds…I haven’t played a player like him ever”.

AIDS

Long before the COVID19 pandemic stole our breath away another not so contagious but nevertheless deadly pandemic ruled the world: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). And we still do not have an effective cure for it since it first came to light in the 1980s.

A new report says that the end may be in sight for AIDS. The Joint United Nations (UN) Program on HIV and AIDS says that Botswana, Eswatini, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe have all reached ’95-95-95’ targets, meaning 95% of the people who are living with HIV know their status, 95% of those people are on lifesaving antiretroviral treatment, and 95% of people in treatment are virally suppressed.

Across eastern and Southern Africa, new HIV infections have been reduced by 57% since 2010. Also since 2010, the percentage of pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV who have access to antiretroviral treatment has nearly doubled, and new infections among children have more than halved.

There’s more work to be done, but the UN said the world could end AIDS by 2030 if we stay the course keep-up the investment from World leaders.

More clusters of stories will be fired in the weeks ahead. Stay safe with World Inthavaaram.