Craig Venter's "Synthetic Cell"

The ever-adventurous Craig Venter is known to announce transformational scientific achievements every now and then. So when he recently claimed that he has created the first ever artificial life, no one was surprised. The details released by him reveal that he and his team designed an artificial genome that was then placed in a natural bacterium where the synthetic DNA ( the genome is a string of DNA) outsmarted the bacterium's DNA and therefore further replication of the bacterium has a synthetic origin.

We may say that the scientist has come up with a semi-synthetic cell. Creation of a totally artificial life may be aeons away or may never occur. Nevertheless this achievement has enormous potential with weighty ethical implications. As we await Venter's next announcement,  ethical ambivalence will continue to punctuate our healthy scepticism about life and its meaning.

The runway tragedy at Mangalore

The Dubai-Mangalore Boeing 737-800 flight crashlanded in the Mangalore airport on 22nd May resulting in the tragic death of 158 persons. This airport has a tabletop runway and is referred to as a tricky airport by the NewYork Times.

In aviation terminology, this event is called "Runway excursion". Runway excursion is an incident involving only a single aircraft where it makes an inappropriate exit from the runway. This can happen because of pilot error, poor weather, emergency, or a fault with the aircraft. According to statistics compiled by IATA, there are 1.6 runway excursions per million flights in AsiaPacific region. (This compares with 0.36 in North America and 3.85 in Africa.) Nearly one in four air crashes occurs during landing.

Black Box and Voice Recorder are yet to be retrieved. Therefore views on what could have led to the crash continue to be conjectural. But one thing is certain. Aviation authorities need to pay more attention to safety of passengers.

ICICI Bank's Risk Appetite

Everyone knows that ICICI Bank's appetite for business volume and therefore for risk is humongous. So nobody is surprised that ICICI Bank is keen to take over Bank of Rajasthan (BoR) with the latter's warts and all. BoR is any regulator's nightmare.The quality of its credit portfolio is suspect and its reputation is in tatters. How come ICICI Bank is interested?

BoR has 463 branches, most of them in Rajasthan where ICICI Bank wants to strengthen its footprint. For a bank that has only recently opened its 2.000th branch, acquiring 463 branches at one go is apparently attractive. But agreeing to pay nearly Rs.6.7 crore per branch and 4.8 times BoR's Book Value even before due diligence is completed is indicative more of desperation for business than of eagerness for profits. Topline growth does not guarantee growth in bottomline and in fact is likely to increase the pressure on profitability.

ICICI Bank had earlier taken over Bank of Madura Ltd and Sangli Bank. Therefore ICICI Bank must have the expertise to manage the transition without hassles. It can easily optimise the utility of nearly 4,500 employees of BoR. However it should be conscious that it is walking into a regulatory quagmire.

Chinese credibility (contd.)

In the post dated 1st May a comment was made on Chinese government's unwillingness to subscribe to universally accepted ethical system. Thomas Friedman in his column titled "A question from Lydia" appearing in The Hindu Business Line dated 18th May has opined that "our values and ethical systems eventually have to be harmonised as much as our markets". This column ofcourse is not a reference to China in particular.

In an adverse report on quality of Chinese products, AFP states that 2.2 m young Chinese die every year from health problems related to indoor air pollution. The study released by the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention traces this malady to dangerous indoor pollutants including formaldehyde, benzene, ammonia and radon used indiscriminately by local manufacturers of furniture and building materials.

Anand vs Topalov

Viswanathan Anand has retained the World Chess Championship defeating Vasily Topalov. This demonstrates that age does not necessarily blunt the thinking faculty. Prior to the match, Topalov had said that minus 5 was his biggest plus. (He is 35 and Anand 40).

Anand's pleasant manners also indicate that one need not exhibit an overly aggressive and unpleasant countenance to be a winner even in a game like chess which is partly psychological warfare. It is noteworthy that Topalov preferred not to shake hands with or even speak to Anand throughout the twelve games. In one game, when Anand offered a draw, Topalov simply mumbled something and chose to speak through the arbiter. Topalov also espoused the tactless "Sofia Rule" and claimed not to accept any offer of draw. Arrogance does not necessarily beget success.

Jairam Ramesh, a Chindian ?

Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Environment and Forests has done the unpardonable a la Shashi Tharoor. He has criticised our Home Ministry while on a visit to China.

He has discovered that there are two dimensions to India's relationship with China. The Copenhagen spirit dimension is what the minister endorses. He is against the "Huawei headache dimension". According to the overly articulate minister, our Home Ministry's suspicion that possible malware / spyware in imported telecom equipment , particularly from China, could severely threaten national security is "needless" and "paranoid". "We are imagining demons where there are none". Even Pandit Nehru and Krishna Menon would not have been so naive !

The minister has committed a double fault. One, what is the expertise at his command to give a clean chit to Huawei ? Secondly, is a foreign territory the right place to castigate another ministry in the Indian cabinet ?

Chinese credibility

There is obviously no doubt that China has become the locomotive of world's economic growth. Its huge population and economic infrastructure guarantee its continued dominance in the foreseeable future. However the country seems to be failing miserably on the ethical front. This lapse may prove to be China's undoing in the long run.

Google belatedly took umbrage at Chinese government's alleged connivance with the hackers and also baulked at government - sponsored censorship. Indian government has blacklisted the Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers suspecting embedded spyware. Unethical conduct stifles economic progress. Modern economy and antediluvian ethical paradigm cannot co-exist. Ethical deficit will impoverish the economy sooner or later.

It will be unfortunate if the potential of the most populous economy is thwarted and therefore fails to bloom fully on account of the government's unwillingness to subscribe to universally accepted ethical system. The major loser in the bargain will be China itself.