VZCZCXRO9165
RR RUEHAST RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD RUEHTM
DE RUEHNE #1843/01 1851057
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 031057Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2499
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 2446
RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI 3176
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 2259
RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHDC
RUCPDC/NOAA NMFS WASHINGTON DC
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHDC
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHDC
RUEHPH/CDC ATLANTA GA
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE

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