The Evening Wrap: U.S. vetoes UNSC resolution calling for humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza

The United States vetoed on Wednesday a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have called for humanitarian pauses in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas to allow humanitarian aid access to the Gaza Strip. The vote on the Brazilian-drafted text was twice delayed in the past couple of days as the United States tried to broker aid access to Gaza. Twelve members voted in favour of the draft text on Wednesday, while Russia and Britain abstained. Earlier, U.S. President Joe Biden, after arriving in Tel Aviv, backed the Israeli account that the hospital explosion was caused by militants. Palestinian officials blamed an Israeli air strike for the huge blast and fireball which engulfed the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital, and said it killed as many as 500 people. Israel said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied blame. Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden said: “I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion of the hospital in Gaza yesterday, and based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you.” As rage spread through the region because of the hospital carnage, Biden arrived in Israel and hugged Nethanyahu. As Biden left for Israel, Jordan’s Foreign Minister said his country had cancelled a regional summit scheduled for Wednesday in Amman, where Biden was to meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. He will now visit only Israel, a White House official said. Before Tuesday’s blast, health authorities in Gaza said at least 3,000 people had died in Israel’s 11-day bombardment that began after a Hamas October 7 rampage on southern Israeli communities in which 1,300 people were killed and around 200 were taken into Gaza as hostages. Union Cabinet clears ₹15,000-crore bonanza for government staff Putting more money into government employees’ hands amid the festive season and ahead of critical Assembly elections next month, the Union Cabinet on October 18 approved a nearly ₹15,000-crore bounty for them, which includes an extra instalment of dearness allowance, representing a 4% hike for employees and pensioners to compensate for inflation. The Cabinet’s decisions came a day after the government announced an ad hoc bonus for some Central government employees. The additional dearness allowance (DA) for serving employees and dearness relief (DR) for pensioners will be paid out with effect from July 1, 2023, and take the overall payouts to 46% of the basic pay or pension amounts. For 11.07 lakh non-gazetted railway employees, a Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) equivalent to 78 days’ wages for the financial year 2022-23 was announced, amounting to ₹1,968.87 crore. Railway Protection Force and Railway Protection Special Force personnel are excluded from the ambit of this bonus. “The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both dearness allowance and dearness relief [for pensioners] would be ₹12,857 crore per annum. This will benefit about 48.67 lakh Central government employees and 67.95 lakh pensioners,” an official statement said, noting that it will recompense them “against price rise”. On Tuesday, the government had cleared an ad hoc or non-productivity linked bonus for the last financial year 2022-23 equivalent to 30 days of emoluments with a ceiling of ₹7,000, for non-gazetted ‘Group B’ employees and all ‘Group C’ employees who are not covered by any productivity linked incentives. This bonus is also admissible for eligible employees of the armed forces and the Central paramilitary forces. The exact outgo on account of this bonus could not be ascertained. Reacting to the productivity-linked bonus payments announced for 11,07,346 railway employees, Shiva Gopal Mishra, general secretary of All India Railwaymen’s Federation, requested the Railway Board to ensure railwaymen receive the bonus before Durga Puja and Dasara. The Cabinet noted that the Railways’ performance was “very good” in 2022-23 as it carried a record cargo of 1,509 million tonnes and nearly 6.5 billion passengers. “Payment of PLB will act as an incentive to motivate the railway employees for working towards further improvement in performance,” the government said, even as it noted that many factors were responsible for last year’s record performance, including improvement in infrastructure due to infusion of record capital expenditure, efficiency in operations and better technology. Listen to today’s episode of the In Focus podcast What’s life like for the elephant that leads the Dussehra procession? The Dussehra festivities are here, and so are Dussehra processions. In Mysore, like every year, this time too, the elephant Abhimanyu will carry the 750-kg Golden Howdah and lead the procession. Abhimanyu is 59 years old and this could be one of the last times he performs his annual duty. While people love temple elephants and pachyderms like Abhimanyu are an integral part of religious rituals, it is, nonetheless, a fact that elephants are wild animals, and their transition to life in captivity is rarely without distress. In this episode of In Focus, we look at the life trajectory of Abhimanyu, and the larger issues around human-elephant conflict in the context of captive elephants. Ethics Committee calls BJP MP Dubey, advocate Dehadrai for statement in complaint against Mahua Moitra BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has been asked to present evidence in front of the Parliamentary Ethics Committee on October 26 to back his allegations that Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra took money to ask Parliamentary questions. Dubey has been called along with advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai, Moitra’s former partner, who has been quoted in the BJP MP’s complaint. I am directed to state that the Committee on Ethics has decided to hear you in the above matter in person on October 26, 2023, from 12:30 hours onwards in Committee Room 1, Parliament House Annexe Extension, New Delhi. Necessary confirmation in this regard may kindly be sent to the Secretariat, latest by 20 October, 2023,” the letter from the panel said. A similar letter has been sent to Dehadrai. Within days of Dubey filing his complaint against Moitra, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla referred it to the Ethics panel. On October 15, reacting to the complaint, Moitra said in a post on X, “Multiple breach of privileges pending against fake degree wala and other BJP luminaries. Welcome any motions against me right after the Speaker finishes dealing with those. Also waiting for ED and others to file FIR in Adani coal scam before coming to my doorstep.” The TMC MP added, “Am using all my ill-gotten cash and gifts to buy a college/university in which Degree Dubey can finally buy a real degree. Please Om Birla, Lok Sabha Speaker, finish the enquiries against him for false affidavits & then set up my enquiry committee.” The Ethics committee is headed by BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar. Supreme Court collegium recommends names of 13 advocates as judges of High Courts The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud has recommended the names of 13 advocates as judges of different High Courts. The Collegium, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sanjiv Khanna, recommended the names of advocates N. Unni Krishnan Nair, and Kaushik Goswami as judges of Gauhati High Court. “On May 29, 2023, the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court in consultation with his two senior-most colleagues recommended the elevation of the above advocates as judges of that High Court. We have duly taken note of the views received from the constitutional authorities of the States of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland. “In order to ascertain the fitness and suitability of the above-named persons for elevation to the high court, we have consulted our colleagues conversant with the affairs of the Gauhati High Court,” the resolution uploaded on the Supreme Court website said. The Collegium said for the purpose of assessing the merit and suitability of the above candidates for elevation to the High Court, it has scrutinised and evaluated the material placed on record including the observations made by the Department of Justice in the file as well as the complaints, received against some of the candidates. In another decision, the Collegium has recommended the names of advocates Siddhartha Sah and Alok Mahra for appointment as Judges of the Uttarakhand High Court. It has also recommended the names of advocates Harmeet Singh Grewal, Deepinder Singh Nalwa, Sumeet Goel, Sudeepti Sharma and Kirti Singh for appointment as judges of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. The Collegium has also recommended the names of advocates Vinay Saraf, Vivek Jain, Ashish Shroti, and Amit Seth for appointment as Judges of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. “On November 11, 2022, the Chief Justice of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh made the above recommendation in consultation with his two senior-most colleagues. We have duly taken note of the views of the Chief Minister and the Governor of the State of Madhya Pradesh placed in the file about the suitability or otherwise of the above candidates. Supreme Court refuses to entertain PIL seeking rights for Hindus, others to manage their religious places like Muslims The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a PIL seeking for Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs the right to establish, manage and maintain their religious places like Muslims, Parsis and Christians, dubbing the petition a “publicity-oriented litigation”. A bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the matter fell within the legislature’s domain and the court will not like to enter it. “Mr. Upadhyay, file a proper petition. What are these prayers? Can these reliefs be granted? Withdraw this petition and file a petition with prayers which can be granted. File a petition which has some substance. This is all publicity-oriented litigation. This petition is not maintainable,” the court said. The top court was hearing a plea filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay which also sought a uniform code for religious and charitable endowments and referred to the control of government authorities over Hindu temples across the country, unlike people of certain religious faiths who are allowed to manage their own institutions. The plea filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey submitted that the right to manage institutions conferred under Article 26 is a natural right for all communities. But Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs have been denied this privilege, said the petition, adding approximately four lakh of around nine lakh Hindu temples across the country are under government control. Besides Upadhyay’s plea, the apex court also refused to entertain Hindu seer Swami Jeetendranand Saraswatee’s petition seeking similar directions. Families of India’s first cases of two rare disease patients struggle for inclusion under national policy Families of two children diagnosed with the rarest of rare diseases — Infantile Hypophosphatasia and Niemann Pick — are struggling to get these genetic disorders included under the Centre’s National Policy for Rare Diseases (NPRD). Continuity of the expensive treatment can be ensured only if there is assurance of funding, either through the government or medical insurance, as is the case in other countries, the families feel. Both these children from Karnataka stand out as unique cases. While 16-month-old Sera Nile Fay is India’s only known case of Infantile Hypophosphatasia, 14-year-old Taran is the first Neimann Pick Disease (NPD) patient put on therapy in India. Sera Nile Fay was diagnosed with Infantile Hypophosphatasia — a rare condition — when she was five months old. She has been undergoing enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) at the State-run Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health (IGICH) in Bengaluru since March. The medicines that will keep her disease at bay are very costly — around ₹2.5 crore per year — and the cost will increase as the patient gets older. Having spent ₹75 lakh so far through personal funds and crowdfunding, her parents — Michael Andrews and Teresa — are worried as her medicines will run out mid-November. Infantile Hypophosphatasia is a rare genetic disease in which the patient’s bones and teeth demineralise, making her fragile and prone to fractures. While there is no known cure, there’s a chance that a pharma company could begin trials for a drug to cure the disease by the end of 2024. Michael Andrews told The Hindu, “We are really looking for inclusion of this disease under the NPRD. It is crucial to continue her treatment to avoid the onset of respiratory issues and the development of rickets. However, the cost of this therapy is beyond our means. We are looking for support to help fund Sera’s lifelong treatment.” “The drug procured in July will last till mid-November. We urgently need to secure the next set of enzymes, and need a minimum of ₹96 lakh for a dose that will last 5 months. As Sera is gaining weight, she needs a higher dosage,” he said. As part of their crowdfunding efforts, the toddler’s parents have created a website and are also running an online Change.org/SpeakUpForSera campaign. Taran was diagnosed with Neimann Pick Disease (NPD) when he was three years old. He has been undergoing free ERT through a pharma company’s global humanitarian programme since November 2022, at IGICH and the Centre for Human Genetics (CHG). His mother Navinthara Kamath, who is leading the NPD India Charitable Organisation, said Taran is doing well with the treatment. “We are hoping Taran will lead a normal life with the therapy, but it all depends on continuity of the treatment lifelong. We do not know till when the pharma company Sanofi will provide us the drugs for free. We urge the government to include NPD under the policy. There are 16 NPD patients in India, and Taran was the first to be put on treatment,” she said. NPD is a lysosomal storage disease (LSD) caused by acid sphingomyelinase deficiency (ASMD). The disease refers to a group of inherited metabolic disorders in which abnormal amounts of lipids (fatty materials such as waxes, oils, and cholesterol) build up in the brain, spleen, liver, lungs, and bone marrow. In Brief: Climate activist Greta Thunberg was charged by British police on October 18 after she and others were arrested at a protest outside a London hotel where an oil and gas conference was taking place. Thunberg was charged with a public order offence for failing to comply with conditions that police said had been imposed to prevent “serious disruption to the community, hotel and guests.” She has been released on bail and is due to appear in court on November 15. Video footage from Tuesday showed Thunberg, wearing a badge with the slogan ‘Oily Money Out’ standing calmly as two police officers spoke to her and still images showed her being placed in the back of a police van. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 18 October 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( U.S. vetoes UN Security Council resolution calling for humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza [The United States vetoed on Wednesday a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have called for humanitarian pauses in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas]( to allow humanitarian aid access to the Gaza Strip. The vote on the Brazilian-drafted text was twice delayed in the past couple of days as the United States tried to broker aid access to Gaza. Twelve members voted in favour of the draft text on Wednesday, while Russia and Britain abstained. Earlier, U.S. President Joe Biden, after arriving in Tel Aviv, backed the Israeli account that the hospital explosion was caused by militants. Palestinian officials blamed an Israeli air strike for the huge blast and fireball which engulfed the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital, and said it killed as many as 500 people. Israel said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied blame. Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden said: “I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion of the hospital in Gaza yesterday, and based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you.” As rage spread through the region because of the hospital carnage, Biden arrived in Israel and hugged Nethanyahu. As Biden left for Israel, Jordan’s Foreign Minister said his country had cancelled a regional summit scheduled for Wednesday in Amman, where Biden was to meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. He will now visit only Israel, a White House official said. Before Tuesday’s blast, health authorities in Gaza said at least 3,000 people had died in Israel’s 11-day bombardment that began after a Hamas October 7 rampage on southern Israeli communities in which 1,300 people were killed and around 200 were taken into Gaza as hostages. Union Cabinet clears ₹15,000-crore bonanza for government staff Putting more money into government employees’ hands amid the festive season and ahead of critical Assembly elections next month, the [Union Cabinet on October 18 approved a nearly ₹15,000-crore bounty for them, which includes an extra instalment of dearness allowance]( representing a 4% hike for employees and pensioners to compensate for inflation. The Cabinet’s decisions came a day after the government announced an ad hoc bonus for some Central government employees. The additional dearness allowance (DA) for serving employees and dearness relief (DR) for pensioners will be paid out with effect from July 1, 2023, and take the overall payouts to 46% of the basic pay or pension amounts. For 11.07 lakh non-gazetted railway employees, a Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) equivalent to 78 days’ wages for the financial year 2022-23 was announced, amounting to ₹1,968.87 crore. Railway Protection Force and Railway Protection Special Force personnel are excluded from the ambit of this bonus. “The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both dearness allowance and dearness relief [for pensioners] would be ₹12,857 crore per annum. This will benefit about 48.67 lakh Central government employees and 67.95 lakh pensioners,” an official statement said, noting that it will recompense them “against price rise”. On Tuesday, the government had cleared an ad hoc or non-productivity linked bonus for the last financial year 2022-23 equivalent to 30 days of emoluments with a ceiling of ₹7,000, for non-gazetted ‘Group B’ employees and all ‘Group C’ employees who are not covered by any productivity linked incentives. This bonus is also admissible for eligible employees of the armed forces and the Central paramilitary forces. The exact outgo on account of this bonus could not be ascertained. Reacting to the productivity-linked bonus payments announced for 11,07,346 railway employees, Shiva Gopal Mishra, general secretary of All India Railwaymen’s Federation, requested the Railway Board to ensure railwaymen receive the bonus before Durga Puja and Dasara. The Cabinet noted that the Railways’ performance was “very good” in 2022-23 as it carried a record cargo of 1,509 million tonnes and nearly 6.5 billion passengers. “Payment of PLB will act as an incentive to motivate the railway employees for working towards further improvement in performance,” the government said, even as it noted that many factors were responsible for last year’s record performance, including improvement in infrastructure due to infusion of record capital expenditure, efficiency in operations and better technology. Listen to today’s episode of the In Focus podcast What’s life like for the elephant that leads the Dussehra procession? [The Dussehra festivities are here, and so are Dussehra processions](. In Mysore, like every year, this time too, the elephant Abhimanyu will carry the 750-kg Golden Howdah and lead the procession. Abhimanyu is 59 years old and this could be one of the last times he performs his annual duty. While people love temple elephants and pachyderms like Abhimanyu are an integral part of religious rituals, it is, nonetheless, a fact that elephants are wild animals, and their transition to life in captivity is rarely without distress. In this episode of In Focus, we look at the life trajectory of Abhimanyu, and the larger issues around human-elephant conflict in the context of captive elephants. Ethics Committee calls BJP MP Dubey, advocate Dehadrai for statement in complaint against Mahua Moitra [BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has been asked to present evidence in front of the Parliamentary Ethics Committee on October 26 to back his allegations that Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra took money to ask Parliamentary questions.]( Dubey has been called along with advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai, Moitra’s former partner, who has been quoted in the BJP MP’s complaint. I am directed to state that the Committee on Ethics has decided to hear you in the above matter in person on October 26, 2023, from 12:30 hours onwards in Committee Room 1, Parliament House Annexe Extension, New Delhi. Necessary confirmation in this regard may kindly be sent to the Secretariat, latest by 20 October, 2023,” the letter from the panel said. A similar letter has been sent to Dehadrai. Within days of Dubey filing his complaint against Moitra, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla referred it to the Ethics panel. On October 15, reacting to the complaint, Moitra said in a post on X, “Multiple breach of privileges pending against fake degree wala and other BJP luminaries. Welcome any motions against me right after the Speaker finishes dealing with those. Also waiting for ED and others to file FIR in Adani coal scam before coming to my doorstep.” The TMC MP added, “Am using all my ill-gotten cash and gifts to buy a college/university in which Degree Dubey can finally buy a real degree. Please Om Birla, Lok Sabha Speaker, finish the enquiries against him for false affidavits & then set up my enquiry committee.” The Ethics committee is headed by BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar. Supreme Court collegium recommends names of 13 advocates as judges of High Courts [The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud has recommended the names of 13 advocates as judges of different High Courts.]( The Collegium, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sanjiv Khanna, recommended the names of advocates N. Unni Krishnan Nair, and Kaushik Goswami as judges of Gauhati High Court. “On May 29, 2023, the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court in consultation with his two senior-most colleagues recommended the elevation of the above advocates as judges of that High Court. We have duly taken note of the views received from the constitutional authorities of the States of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland. “In order to ascertain the fitness and suitability of the above-named persons for elevation to the high court, we have consulted our colleagues conversant with the affairs of the Gauhati High Court,” the resolution uploaded on the Supreme Court website said. The Collegium said for the purpose of assessing the merit and suitability of the above candidates for elevation to the High Court, it has scrutinised and evaluated the material placed on record including the observations made by the Department of Justice in the file as well as the complaints, received against some of the candidates. In another decision, the Collegium has recommended the names of advocates Siddhartha Sah and Alok Mahra for appointment as Judges of the Uttarakhand High Court. It has also recommended the names of advocates Harmeet Singh Grewal, Deepinder Singh Nalwa, Sumeet Goel, Sudeepti Sharma and Kirti Singh for appointment as judges of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. The Collegium has also recommended the names of advocates Vinay Saraf, Vivek Jain, Ashish Shroti, and Amit Seth for appointment as Judges of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. “On November 11, 2022, the Chief Justice of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh made the above recommendation in consultation with his two senior-most colleagues. We have duly taken note of the views of the Chief Minister and the Governor of the State of Madhya Pradesh placed in the file about the suitability or otherwise of the above candidates. Supreme Court refuses to entertain PIL seeking rights for Hindus, others to manage their religious places like Muslims The [Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a PIL seeking for Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs the right to establish, manage and maintain their religious places like Muslims, Parsis and Christians]( dubbing the petition a “publicity-oriented litigation”. A bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the matter fell within the legislature’s domain and the court will not like to enter it. “Mr. Upadhyay, file a proper petition. What are these prayers? Can these reliefs be granted? Withdraw this petition and file a petition with prayers which can be granted. File a petition which has some substance. This is all publicity-oriented litigation. This petition is not maintainable,” the court said. The top court was hearing a plea filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay which also sought a uniform code for religious and charitable endowments and referred to the control of government authorities over Hindu temples across the country, unlike people of certain religious faiths who are allowed to manage their own institutions. The plea filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey submitted that the right to manage institutions conferred under Article 26 is a natural right for all communities. But Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs have been denied this privilege, said the petition, adding approximately four lakh of around nine lakh Hindu temples across the country are under government control. Besides Upadhyay’s plea, the apex court also refused to entertain Hindu seer Swami Jeetendranand Saraswatee’s petition seeking similar directions. Families of India’s first cases of two rare disease patients struggle for inclusion under national policy [Families of two children diagnosed with the rarest of rare diseases — Infantile Hypophosphatasia and Niemann Pick — are struggling to get these genetic disorders included under the Centre’s National Policy for Rare Diseases]( (NPRD). Continuity of the expensive treatment can be ensured only if there is assurance of funding, either through the government or medical insurance, as is the case in other countries, the families feel. Both these children from Karnataka stand out as unique cases. While 16-month-old Sera Nile Fay is India’s only known case of Infantile Hypophosphatasia, 14-year-old Taran is the first Neimann Pick Disease (NPD) patient put on therapy in India. Sera Nile Fay was diagnosed with Infantile Hypophosphatasia — a rare condition — when she was five months old. She has been undergoing enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) at the State-run Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health (IGICH) in Bengaluru since March. The medicines that will keep her disease at bay are very costly — around ₹2.5 crore per year — and the cost will increase as the patient gets older. Having spent ₹75 lakh so far through personal funds and crowdfunding, her parents — Michael Andrews and Teresa — are worried as her medicines will run out mid-November. Infantile Hypophosphatasia is a rare genetic disease in which the patient’s bones and teeth demineralise, making her fragile and prone to fractures. While there is no known cure, there’s a chance that a pharma company could begin trials for a drug to cure the disease by the end of 2024. Michael Andrews told The Hindu, “We are really looking for inclusion of this disease under the NPRD. It is crucial to continue her treatment to avoid the onset of respiratory issues and the development of rickets. However, the cost of this therapy is beyond our means. We are looking for support to help fund Sera’s lifelong treatment.” “The drug procured in July will last till mid-November. We urgently need to secure the next set of enzymes, and need a minimum of ₹96 lakh for a dose that will last 5 months. As Sera is gaining weight, she needs a higher dosage,” he said. As part of their crowdfunding efforts, the toddler’s parents have created a website and are also running an online Change.org/SpeakUpForSera campaign. Taran was diagnosed with Neimann Pick Disease (NPD) when he was three years old. He has been undergoing free ERT through a pharma company’s global humanitarian programme since November 2022, at IGICH and the Centre for Human Genetics (CHG). His mother Navinthara Kamath, who is leading the NPD India Charitable Organisation, said Taran is doing well with the treatment. “We are hoping Taran will lead a normal life with the therapy, but it all depends on continuity of the treatment lifelong. We do not know till when the pharma company Sanofi will provide us the drugs for free. We urge the government to include NPD under the policy. There are 16 NPD patients in India, and Taran was the first to be put on treatment,” she said. NPD is a lysosomal storage disease (LSD) caused by acid sphingomyelinase deficiency (ASMD). The disease refers to a group of inherited metabolic disorders in which abnormal amounts of lipids (fatty materials such as waxes, oils, and cholesterol) build up in the brain, spleen, liver, lungs, and bone marrow. In Brief: Climate activist [Greta Thunberg was charged by British police]( on October 18 after she and others were arrested at a protest outside a London hotel where an oil and gas conference was taking place. Thunberg was charged with a public order offence for failing to comply with conditions that police said had been imposed to prevent “serious disruption to the community, hotel and guests.” She has been released on bail and is due to appear in court on November 15. Video footage from Tuesday showed Thunberg, wearing a badge with the slogan ‘Oily Money Out’ standing calmly as two police officers spoke to her and still images showed her being placed in the back of a police van. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [Sign up for free]( Today’s Top Picks [[Watch | Why India should worry about its ageing population] Watch | Why India should worry about its ageing population]( [[CRICKET | Knock, knock. Who’s there? The World Cup, we are back in your city Pune] CRICKET | Knock, knock. 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